Hendon and RIP Peter Falk

Peter Falk has passed on. I am one of the millions of fans of Columbo, the crumpled cop. During my third year at UCL, I lived in a house in Hendon with flat mates Ron, Seb, Steve and Tracy. Saturday night was Columbo night. We used to watch it on the TV in Steve's room, surrounded by his wall montage of empty cigarette packets and posters of "Penis Landscape". (This was in the years before he became a millionaire Internet porn baron. Steve, I mean, not Peter Falk).

I remember Ron being the biggest fan. He would always chuckle evilly when Columbo paused at the door of the murderer's house to say he had "Just one more thing..."

That house in Hendon was weird. I remember that there was a two-inch gap between the skirting board and the bottom of the wall on the rear side. When my dad, a builder, came to move me out after a year of living there, he told me the foundations had shifted and the place should be condemned as it could fall down at any time. We spent a crazy year in that house. I have many memories. My room on the ground floor next to the kitchen. I covered one wall with black bin liners for a "gothic" look. I used to play Kate Bush, Abba and Hawkwind and read books about Aleister Crowely. (By coincidence, a couple of years later, I was working with his grand niece at the Museum of London). I was a devotee of the Granada Sherlock Holmes TV series and twice went to see the stage version with Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke. I was into bead craft and made long stringy necklaces from glass beads from a shop in Covent Garden. I was wearing one of them on one of the nights I went to see the Holmes play and I remember watching in dismay as the thread snapped and all my beads went bouncing off and away under the street lamps and into the night.

The street we lived in connected to the North Circular and had a large Jewish community. One day, I noticed that there was an unusually large number of wig shops in the vicinity. My friend informed me that a lot of Jewish ladies wore wigs. I started looking out for them and almost immediately noticed the lady across the road. How I hadn't noticed before puzzled me, as her wig was made for someone with a head much bigger, so that the front of it met with her eyebrows. It would always be at least a little askew, depending on what, I don't know. Maybe depending on the wind or how much she had been rushing about.

But anyway, going back to Peter Falk, I never realised he was also an artist, and a good one at that. I have been looking through his charcoal sketches and they show he had real talent. Google and check them out for yourself. Until then, here is Columbo roasting Frank Sinatra:

31 Degrees, No Air Con, Caveman Diet and radio 4

Tokyo is 31 degrees today and the humidity is 65%. Am I the only person who is enjoying the sauna? I love it. All the aches and pains I suffered through winter are gone! No aching back, chest, shoulder, foot, knee, elbow, wrist or guts. In winter I feel like I have been crushed by a ten-tonne truck, so thank god for the warm weather.

Talking of the weather, it seems that a lot of places are going to be sweltering this summer because of the power shortage after the earthquake. Numerous places are restricting their air conditioning temperature to 28 degrees or else have no air con at all. I've been warned that a university I am going to lecture at for 3 days next week may have no air con and so I should "dress lightly or casually". Not sure what they mean by that. Light suit? Bikini? Event halls are offering 10% discounts to people who book their rooms for functions because they will also have to set the air con at 28 degrees with no exceptions. Some places are just shutting up shop completely and forcing people to take all their paid holidays during August.

My healthy eating habits are still going strong. I'm finding it surprisingly easy to stick to what Tom Jones calls the "Caveman Diet" - all or nearly all - raw , unprocessed food. Lots of salad, raw fish, fruit and simple cooked food like boiled rice. The weight is dropping off me but I don't feel hungry because I am still eating a lot volume-wise, but not calorie-wise. All those plant fibers really fill you up. My method is to eat my meal then fill up any space by stuffing in as many bananas as possible and it works. My clothes now feel baggy and annoying instead of tight and annoying, but I still can't fit into my old jeans. I think they must have shrunk four sizes at least whilst they have been lying in the cupboards. Either that or all my remaining body fat has rallied in my arse regions for solidarity and a final stand.

However, there is one down side to the fat receding - once it's gone, you see what you have underneath it. It's rather like the tide going out and revealing all those old rusty shopping trolleys people have thrown into the harbour. Once the fat is gone you start feeling other things. Things that dangle. Things that wobble. Odd shapes and bumps. You think, "Oh my god... what is THAT?!" and after convincing yourself that you have some terminal disease you finally realise that it's just what used to be firm sagging like a piece of old knicker elastic. My latest discovery is a horrible big vein in my armpit. It's probably been their for ages under all the fat, but now it is liberated from lard it is free to dangle.

I have just discovered Radio 4. I can't believe I have never listened to it before. It is so interesting and informative. I've been listening to "Gardeners' Question Time", documentaries, and that quiz show with Nicholas Parsons (He's still alive. Well done, mate). I'm going off now to have a bath, have my tea and listen to the afternoon play. Life doesn't get more exciting than this.

Meiji Shine Iris Garden and Hakusan Hydrangea Festival

Yesterday I went to the iris garden in the grounds of the Meiji Shrine. I have lived in Tokyo for 18 years, but until yesterday I didn't know the garden existed. Speaking to a couple of my Japanese friends who are also keen flower photographers, I was surprised to find out that they hadn't heard about it either; it seems to be a well-kept secret. At the entrance you will be asked by one of the multi-lingual staff if you want to see just the iris garden or the iris garden and "the well". If you want to see both, not only do you have to pay extra, you have to go in by a different gate and see the well first, then visit the iris garden afterwards. To make sure people obey this rule and don't sneak in to see the well without paying, they even have a security guard stationed on the path that joins the two to check people's tickets! This led me to think that that must be some exciting well for them to go to the trouble and expense of charging extra, creating a special rule, a special route and employing a security guard. I didn't go and see the well this time, but next time I think I should just to see what all the fuss is about.

Mosquito Hell

Security guard checking people aren't sneaking in to see the well without a ticket

Once I got into the garden, I quickly made my way to the iris pond area. It is only a small part of the Meiji Shrine Inner Garden, but the rest of the garden is a mosquito heaven with dense clumps of ancient trees and large, still pools of water, and I didn't want to hang around in that part for any longer than necessary. Even so, I got quite a few bites anyway. The iris garden itself is long and thin and curves back and forth for a couple of hundred meters between the towering, dense foliage on either side. I have to say that it is quite spectacular - a huge splash of deep green, white and various shades of pink and purple. There was a decent turnout of people, but not half as many as I had expected in such a central tourist location on a sunday afternoon in peak season. It was quite comfortable to go around. The irises were beautiful. I'll just let the pictures of them speak for themselves.

The highlight of the visit was probably listening to the gardener at the end of the garden. He appeared from nowhere in a wide straw hat and wellies, climbed into the water with the irises and proceeded to answers questions from the iris buffs. What fascinated me about him was his tool belt hung with everything he needed including a special tin containing a burning coil of Katori Senko mosquito repellant.  I should have asked him where he bought it, because that would be a very useful fashion accessory.

The Gardener

I spent two hours at the iris garden and then, as it was still only 3 o'clock, I decided to try my luck at the hydrangea festival at Hakusan Shrine, which was about 40 minutes away by train. To get there, I had to change at Sugamo Station. I used to work in Sugamo about 5 or 6 years ago, and so yesterday, out of curiosity, I popped out of the station and walked up and down the main street for old time's sake. I remembered the station and some older parts of the high street shopping arcade, but as for the building my former company was in, I could only remember the rough location. It was somewhere near what is today a mobile phone shop and a cafe. My memory isn't what it used to be.

By the time  finally got to Hakusan, I was starting to wonder if I had made the right decision. I was exhausted and climbing eight flights of steps to get to ground level, I thought I was going t have a heart attack. I had to go and have  Freshness Burger and glass of grapefruit juice to perk me up enough to go to the festival.  By the time I got there, the festival was over (even though it was not even 4 o'clock), but the hydrangeas weren't going anywhere, so I took photos of them for about an hour, then went home. All in all, it was a very satisfying day, and I got plenty of fresh air and exercise, as well as 500-plus flower photos. I haven't started on the Hakusan hydrangea pictures yet, but I can put up plenty of the iris photos as I have uploaded them already.

Weird Painters, Course Planning, Andrew Wyeth, and Lilies.

Well, the creeping painters have crept away and gone. It's all very puzzling. The landlord told us that the building would be completely spruced up over a 2-week period, but all that seems to have happened is that some guys came in for a few days, painted the BACK of the building with some kind of toxic substance that had both hubby and I coughing till out throats were raw, then left again. The whole building needs repainting, but they just painted the back wall, which no one can see because it is two meters away from the back wall of the building next door. Even the people next door can't see it, because there are no windows on that side of their building! I think it must all have been some kind of tax dodge. Maybe the toothless 85-year-old who was struggling with the scaffolding is my landlord's brother or something.

I am super-busy at the minute designing IELTS courses for some universities. Then when they are finished, I go out and teach them. There just aren't enough hours in the day. I have been up till the early hours tonight scanning textbooks and mailing the scans to my office email so that I can work on them tomorrow. I am absolutely knackered.

Not content with buying an exciting, life-changing book on lighthouses last week, I bought another tome on Monday - this one is an illustrated autobiography of one of my favourite artists, Andrew Wyeth. I like him. He is dull like me. He paints pictures of drystone walls and buckets. I love his stuff. The pictures relax me. I can stare at them for hours, perhaps because there is absolutely nothing happening in any of them, so you find yourself just sitting there waiting. Quite like my life, actually. That sums me up in a nutshell. The waiting woman. Like waiting for Godot. Oh no, there I go rambling again.

I had a pleasant Sunday at the lily festival at Yasukuni Shrine. That's the place everyone is always complaining about because it enshrines class A war criminals. Well, I just went there to look at the irises which were arranged in pots around two old blokes in a shed. I took lots of pictures (naturally). An elderly lady, who was arranging the pots, came over and told me that the flower I was taking pictures of at that time was very rare - the "Eagle's Talon" lily. And when I looked at it, it really did look like an eagle's talon, as you can see:

Well, that's about it. You've been lucky so far. I haven't quoted anything from my lighthouse book. Maybe next time...

A Healthy Dinner and the Creeping Painters

I've been on a healthy diet the last month or so. I stopped eating rubbish and started on an intake of mainly salads, fresh fruit and fish. I find eating huge salads fills me up (it's all that roughage) and also makes me feel very energetic, so I don't feel hungry at all, even though my calorie intake is a lot less than usual. So far, so good. I can feel the fat dropping off; I feel lighter and a lot healthier. I can climb stairs without gasping for breath and I sleep pretty well too. Here is what I had for my tea last night:

I mentioned in yesterday's blog the mystery of the vanished painters. Well, this morning, I got up at my usual time of 10a.m. (remember I work the late shift. I am not lazy!) and drew my curtains to find the window covered with plastic and tape on the outside. The painters have been back! This completely creeped me out, because that window is literally one foot from my head when I am sleeping. They must have come back at the crack of dawn this morning, but I had not heard them, not one single sound, even though they must have been within inches of my head! Opening the curtains and seeing that tape on the window felt like unzipping the tent in "Blair Witch" to find piles of stones outside...

Work was AGH today. I am not even going to talk about it. Instead, I am going to read some of my book on lighthouses and imagine I am at the top of a tower, hundreds of miles from anyone else, with not a soul to bother me...

(NB: This post is actually from May 17th. It disappeared the day after I posted it and has somehow just reappeared at the top of my blog. Where has it been? Why did it return? Technobollox!)

I had almost finished typing this blog when the whole bloody thing disappeared. Firefox has been crashing regularly recently. I don't know if it is them or my computer, but I do know it pisses me off severely. I'm going to write this up in Textedit and then cut and paste.



The weather here has been gloomy and wet all day. It seems that once again early spring has dribbled straight into the rainy season. They say it will be a hot summer and most people seem terrified of the prospect of no air conditioning because of the power shortage. It doesn't phase me. In fact, my health is always better in the heat. Since I've got older, winter chills cripple me with pain, so the humidity in summer comes as a welcome relief, even if it does smother my bronchitis. I always sleep much better in the heat too, so bring it on.



I was watching the reports on Lorca and the devastation caused by yesterday's earthquake. Looking at all those broken houses and piles of bricks, I was shocked to learn the quake had only been a 5.2. This puts Japanese building safety into perspective; the quake in Tokyo apparently scored a high five on the Richter scale, so higher than that in Spain, but none of our buildings collapsed. For almost 20 years, I have hated this apartment, hated its gray, concrete walls, its wire-crossed frosted glass and its total lack of attraction. Now I say thank god for steel reinforced concrete! Long may it reign! That two-and-a-half minute high-five tremour made this place dance so much that it threw the fridge into the genkan, but the building survived without a single crack. I'll never complain about living in a bunker again.



I've started watching Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott's latest collaboration, "Robin Hood" (or "Robin Hodd" as hubby wrote on the DVD). I've only watched the first 15 minutes, but it seems to be "Gladiator" in a different uniform. It's dark, it's dreary and Russell's Nottingham accent sounds like Ringo Starr drowning in mud. I don't think I am going to be watching this one to the end. To be honest, I only watched Gladiator because it was two hours of Russell Crowe in a mini skirt.

Lighthouses, Souvenirs, Disappearing Painters.

"The rocky ledge runs far out into the sea and on its outer point, some miles away, the lighthouse shifts its massive masonry, a pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day."

From "The Lighthouse", by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

There you go. As if you needed any more proof that I am boring, I've just blogged a poem about a lighthouse. The final nail in my coffin is that today I bought a whole book about them, this one:

Every Monday, after I teach one of my private students, I go around a little market that sells cheap books, pajamas, writing paper and other dull necessities. They had a lot of books on art and interior design today, and I picked this one out. I can't say I've ever been excited about lighthouses before, (the only one I can think of offhand is the one in the John Carpenter movie, "The Fog" and perhaps the legendary John Noakes visited Bishop Rock during an episode of Blue Peter) but when I saw the photos in this, I was smitten. So I parted with hard cash and here it is. You can look forward to some interesting lighthouse facts being shared with you in my blog. Wow, I bet you just cannot wait.

Today has been a good day. My health felt okay-ish for the second day running (maybe being off work had something to do with it) and I have been out teaching private students, shopping and enjoying the hot, sunny weather.

This last fortnight has been a time for getting lovely souvenirs from people. Two weeks ago, I got these great gifts from a friend who went to Turkey - Turkish delight (now almost eaten) and apple tea:

Then today I got this great selection of seaweed and kimuchi from my private who went to Korea. The latter is for slimming - maybe it is so spicy that it goes straight through you, thereby making you lose weight through diarrhea.

And here are some treats I bought for myself - rose jellies and my favourite peppermint tea - I drink about 100 cups of this stuff a week. Great for the digestion, caffeine free and apparently reduces hairiness ( to which my husband said "Too late.")

Painting mystery - I mentioned that the painters were supposed to be in this week to redecorate our apartment building. Well, they put up scaffolding on the rear of the building on Friday and haven't been seen since. According to the schedule of work, they should have been here on Saturday and today, but there was no sign of them. Maybe one of the neighbours did them in after they were too noisy with their drills on Friday. It's trash night tonight, so I will have to check the binbags and see if any of them have feet sticking out of them.

Roses, Cake, Hitchhikers.

I've been making it a point to go out to a park every Sunday. Today's big trip was out to a rose garden near Komagome. Kyu-Furukawa is famous for its rose garden and a western-style building that is the work of the English architect, Josiah Condor (the same person who designed the Nicolai Cathedral in Ochanomizu). There is also a nice little Japanese style garden at the back with a lovely pond. 

I spent about three hours there and had a good walk around (and of course took a lot of pictures). You can buy a lot of rose-related souvenirs. I treated myself to some rose-flavoured ice-cream and a bag of jellies. I almost didn't go, as looking at the clouds this morning, I was pretty sure it was going to pour down, but by some miracle it didn't rain.

This week it was hubby's birthday. I went out shopping late Monday and was lucky enough to get him presents and a cake before the shops shut, but it was a close thing. there aren't many places you can get a birthday cake at close to 9 o'clock at night. so thank god for department stores. I managed to get him a lovely cream sponge with fresh strawberries on it. The lady asked if I wanted his name icing onto a chocolate plaque, and I had a brain wave and had his nickname iced on it instead. She looked at me strangely when she read it and even more so when I started laughing. I was worried about getting it home in one piece as it was so massive, but they packed it pretty securely so I didn't end up with it in a dollop at the bottom of the bag. I went to Body Shop first to try to get him some bathroom stuff, but the staff in there were so annoying that I left after 5 minutes; they followed me around the shop explaining everything to me even though the name and function of every product was clearly written on the labels in two languages. I hate pushy assistants - I can't concentrate when they are bleating at me - so I left. It all worked out for the best, as I ended up in Lush and bought him a pile of hand-made stuff for the bathroom: herbal shampoo bar; honey soap, peppermint soap, herbal facial scrub, lavender massage bar. I hope to take him out for dinner somewhere tonight. He likes steaks, and I would like to take him to TGIF, but he might not want to go that far away, so we might end up in Billy the Kid again.

Last week we had to endure the noise of the school sports day - this week and next week it's the painters. On Thursday I noticed a poster at the entrance to our apartment building announcing that the painters will be redecoration over the next fortnight, starting at 8:30 each morning and finishing at six. As I work late and hubby works nights, this will be another two weeks of sleep deprivation. They started in style on Friday, drilling holes in the walls to attach the scaffolding at 8:30 on the dot. More than the noise I am worried about what might happen to my cactus, Wilbur, as they will be covering the balconies with tarps for two weeks and no light will be getting in. I might have to take him to work with me so that he can get some sunshine.

I finished watching "The Singing Detective" on YouTube - thoroughly enjoyed it - and now I'm part way through the original BBC series of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". That's when telly was good, not crap like it is today.

Oh well, time for a cup of peppermint tea and to clean out the hamster. He smells of pee and there are fruit flies hovering over his banana.